Partners I
by polrobin
Summary: Scully reflects on her partnership with Mulder. First of three stories.


Author's notes

Original posting dateWed, 28 Jan 1998 13:20:16 -0800

rating: G

Category: V

Spoilers: none, I made up the case ref in the piece.

Keyword: Mulder/Scully bonding

Summary: Scully reflects on her partnership with Mulder.

Ok, this is a first-time for me. I only discovered the X-Files at Christmas this year and have made a valiant effort to catch up, including my own little marathon last weekend.

Scully and Mulder's relationship is something I identify with, being in a similar situation. My partner and I are extremely close, yet are each married to someone else, much to the surprise of new acquaintances.

After searching through the catagories, I think this falls under UST, or more accurately a Mulder/Scully bonding thing.

One last thing, my compliments to the MANY fanfic writers out there. I've enjoyed your work immensely and reading those gace me the impetus I needed to get going on my own thing.

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_**Partners I**_

Special Agent Dana Scully sighed and settled her head more comfortably against her makeshift pillow. Stretching her neck up and back to loosen the kinks, she studied her partner, Fox Mulder, who was so thoughtfully loaning her his left arm as a headrest. As usual, he was absorbed in his reading, left leg bent with the ankle resting on his right knee, papers spread all over his lap. The table next to him was littered with spent sunflower seed-shells, scattered in and around a bowl, the light from the lamp softening his sometimes too-intense features.

Scully squinted at the clock on the VCR; 11:57 pm. Another Saturday night spent poring through old files and reports from questionable sources, looking for that almost indefinable something that would provide a much needed clue to their current case. Scully couldn't remember when they'd started this study-session type of evening. It had been necessary on a case a while back when they were concerned about surveillance in their basement office, and had since become something of a tradition. They'd finish up work on Friday, Scully usually leaving first, and end up at Mulder's place on Saturday night, going over notes from the week or looking for more information on a current case. It was sort of an extension of their time on the road. Odd how when they were on the road the 'study-sessions' usually ended up in Scully's room, and when they were back in DC they usually ended up at Mulder's.

Tonight was no different. They'd just wrapped up a grisly case in Missouri and had submitted most of their paperwork at the end of the day yesterday. Because Mulder wanted to get an early start on another X-File on Monday they'd agreed to sort through their "ordinary" paperwork tonight. _Ordinary_, Scully thought with a mental snort. _Sure, if you consider profiling murderers and other sociopath's ordinary. But for them, it _was_ ordinary._ Police profile requests and pathology reports were a far cry from their usual serving of slimy beings, stretching rubber-band men and sex-changing oddballs.

Returning to her own pile of paperwork, Scully curled her legs under her and settled more comfortably into the soft embrace of the couch, her body partially turned away from her partner. Closing her eyes for a moment she let her mind wander where it would, taking a mental break from the mess in front of her. Mulder's arm outstretched arm lay along the back of the couch and provided a comfortable headrest for her.

Their partnership was like that, she thought, comfortable. Each there for the other, usually just within touching distance, neither consciously aware of it. As much as she teased Mulder about "wanting a life", she was content with what she had. Her association with Mulder was more than she could have imagined possible in a platonic relationship. She knew her partner inside and out, could communicate with him with just a single glance or gesture, could tell what he was thinking and feeling, sometimes even before he knew himself. Their work required a kind of intensity and closeness most people couldn't understand, even in the Bureau. Scully knew many of their co-workers made assumptions regarding her and Mulder's closeness; assumptions neither one of them did anything to disabuse. Scully didn't look too closely at why they let those assumptions go, they just did.

In some ways, Scully reflected, their relationship was similar to that of an athletic team. Scully was a great fan of the sport of ice dance, her favorites being the British couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Christopher Dean once said of his and his Jayne's successful, long-term relationship that it was "A marriage without the sex." Scully hadn't understood the comment when she'd first read it, but she did now. Someone once said that a true friend is someone who knows all there is to know about you, but loves you anyway. Scully's definition of a friend is someone you can call at 2:00 in the morning and know they'll come, no questions asked. Either way you put it that's how it was with her and Mulder.


End file.
